With a forward by David Fricke, Editor at Rolling Stone (a magazine who have never really been keen on Hard Rock) we get to shine a light on a band with a huge legacy. Fricke might be from Rolling Stone but he’s always come across as a fan, (contributing to the Classic Albums series on Hysteria), so even if it’s initially a foreword as much about him as the band, he’s one of the few that actually appreciate Rock music. Far better is the preceding forward by Brian May – can you have two forewords? I guess you can in Rock and Roll!
Joe Elliott has always come across as a Rock fan too, and his list of gigs attended would have been mine if I’d been ten years older, mine instead included his band and all of the bands I could fit in in the mid to late 80s’. I’ve seen Leppard in tiny clubs to huge stadiums, but it’s those intimate shows that are the best. So here we are with Leppard’s first ‘official’ biography and unlike sat The Dirt or Walk This Way this is just as much based on the images as the words. I’d think of it more of a history of the band than a biography as it takes the disjointed route of cobbling together memories from various members rather than take a narrative form. As such it has a wonderful ‘scrapbook’ feel about it and is the sort of book you can flick through. I hope we get a full-on biography from some of the members one day to complement this.
The band is of course from the industrial north of England and it’s great to pick out some of the details in the images like Joe’s heroes being (as well as Ian Hunter) Laurel and Hardy, Harrison Ford and Tony Currie (who presumedly at the time had only played for Watford and Sheffield and not yet made the move to Leeds). Or Maybe Rick Savage’s first album purchase being Propaganda by Sparks or that he was a shade away from being a Pro Footballer?
Whilst the book uses contemporary commentary mixed with archived comments, even bringing in quotes from Steve Clark there are disappointingly none at all from Pete Willis who along with Elliott and Savage was a founder member of the original band. It actually strikes you as quite odd that there is not a single quote from the fourth original member as quotes do exist in print and Willis of course was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Def Leppard in 2019.
THE EARLY DAYS – MADE IN SHEFFIELD
The best aspect of the book for me is probably the archive material (most courtesy of Joe’s mum) that draws together momentous moments from the band’s career and is always fascinating to see from Musicians Union subs to old photos and teen magazine potted bios. The tales of the early days are relatable for any young band too – playing covers of Pat Travers, Bowie, Thin Lizzy and others as well as balancing day jobs looking for the ‘big break’. I love touches like memories of rifling through the vinyl at Record Collector in Broomhill, as I loved to do that in the 80’s and it’s a record store remarkably still going strong today.
We get a whirlwind history through seeing UFO play in Ipswich – the catalyst for the first live gig at Westfield School, through the recording of the first E.P. and its championing by John Peel of all people, plus the loss of Tony Kenning their first drummer. Then there’s the next domino: the gig at Crookes Working Men’s Club that Geoff Barton and Ross Halfin attended which then led to signing their record deal swiftly followed by support slots with Sammy Hagar and AC/DC all while still teens! Then the final piece of the puzzle comes with the offer of big time management with Leber-Krebs that led to Mutt Lange and opened up the world. It all happens in a matter of pages !
The more you read the more you realise that this is very much an Elliott driven Def Leppard narrative and the more you wish others had more of a say, or shared their perspective, not because Elliott’s voice isn’t interesting or the narrative entertaining just that you feel some events could be seen in more than one light. As for his ‘band names and album covers aren’t important’ line, I couldn’t agree less in the days of vinyl as often if you liked Rock music that was all you really had to go in. Everyone of course will be critical of their early work but to a lot of fans those first two records still shine despite the flaws. Savage’s remark that “the songs were great but I wish we’d recorded them differently” is something I’d love to see done!
NWOBHM or HAIR METAL?
I do take issue with Elliott’s remarks about ‘Hair Metal’ and ‘NWOBHM’ though. ‘Hair Metal’ as a genre I’m still convinced didn’t really exist at all (It was coined in the 90’s as a deliberately derogatory term and rather lazily used to label any 80’s rock band that in reality sounded nothing alike, and done so AFTER the fact) so sticking a band like Def Leppard in there did make some sense though I’d personally refute that any bands deserve the tag.
Calling a band ‘Hair Metal’ would be like renaming Grunge bands – ‘Granddads plaid shirts’. The fact Joe then goes on to name a bunch of still quite diverse bands making music in 1987 like Motley Crue, Warrant, Bon Jovi and Poison makes no sense at all as the term hadn’t been invented at that stage and just implies that he sees them all as ‘Hair Metal’. And he tours regularly with one of them…
NWOBHM conversely was just a loose term designed to get people to listen to local product and again whilst the genre never really existed it was a positive term used to market diverse bands. Sure no way were Def Leppard Metal but they didn’t get adversely affected by the tag. Elliott sees Def Leppard as ‘Queen meets AC/DC’ apparently… I personally think they are far from either I don’t get either that direct bluesy riff-based power or the magical diversity of Queen.
HAS THE LEPPARD CHANGED ITS SPOTS? or HELLO AMERICA?
I remember reading the Sounds article by Geoff Barton ‘Has the Leppard Changed Its Spots’ when it came out in 1980 and thinking what a twat he was with his provincial mindset but the boys pushed on and hit L.A. and didn’t even get carded! The 80’s you see were like that people were responsible for their own actions. The 1980 tour saw them support Pat Travers, Judas Priest, Ted Nugent and Scorpions. Back to the UK it was Reading and the press talk off them being booed. I had a mates older brother report back that was bullshit though following Slade who excelled that day must have been hard!
It’s interesting that the lull then created by Mutt Lange’s unavailability comes as a sort of reality check – back to being penniless and working day jobs with an album sat at number 20 in the UK charts. But when High and Dry comes there’s the experience of working with Mutt Lange who has just produced AC/DC and Foreigner. It’s interesting to read Elliott’s comments retrospectively rather than at the time as in hindsight his opinions have changed to comments in the press at the time especially with regards his vocals.
Then comes the firing of Pete Willis and it’s accompanied by the only quote in the whole book by him. And while Elliott documents the issue of only Pete taking to the stage drunk, Sav mentions that he remembers Clark also does ‘rarely’ and Willis also notes that Clark was probably drinking as much as him but did so quietly whereas he spoke his mind. That of course led to his firing and ironically probably his survival and Clark’s sad early demise.
PYROMANIA and MTV
And in comes Phil Collen and ‘Pyromania’ who within two pages already has more lines in the book than his predecessor. By the time of recording that album the band owed the label 700,000 pounds! 1983 though was huge with the album riding high, MTV chipping in and the bands parents flown out to the L.A. Forum to see the band with Brian May on stage. There’s plenty of anecdotes and high jinx on the tour culminating on headlining to a crowd of 55,000.
There’s also a strange section of the book where the band seem to take offence at the mainstream press labelling them ‘heavy metal’, as if the mainstream press ever bothered about Rock music at all especially in the U.K. Collen also comments about the labelling and opines that there was no category for them when “Our albums were selling three or four times more than any other rock act” which of course they weren’t. Sure they were selling a lot more than many but hardly three or times more than anyone. REO Speedwagon had the best selling US album of 1981, Asia the best selling of 1982 and The Police and Z.Z. Top both outsold Pyromania in 1983. Unless of course those aren’t Rock acts?
Of course the money then comes in and houses are purchased and tours go down a treat and it’s still only 1984! After the Pyromania Tour ends it’s relocation to Dublin in a shared house and hanging out with Pop stars and drinking lots. Then the trips between Holland and Dublin for the next three years. And during that time they experiment with Jim Steinman as a producer and Rick Allen loses his arm in a crash before Mutt Lange comes back.
HYSTERIA and THE WAIT
It’s interesting reading hearing about the origins of the Hysteria songs and some of Elliott’s comments about the band having more in common with Frankie Goes to Hollywood sound bizarre still. Looking back, one thing I always thought was that the chorus for ‘Armageddon It’ was a pinch from ‘Give Me All Your Lovin” by Z.Z. Top and it’s confirmed here. According to Collen ‘Hysteria’ is “a bit of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, a bit of Billy Idol and a bit of Prince.” He’s quite dismissive of other Rock bands being closed minded and only listening to Priest and AC/DC. It’s all a bit condescending and whist you admire the self belief it’s all rather self-aggrandizing and the more you read the more you realise the sound is probably more Lange than Leppard.
In amongst the years of recording there was Donington in 1986 the firth time I’d seen the band and my second Donington. I’m pretty sure they weren’t on the original posters so it must have been a late decision to hop on the bill? It was all quite emotional being Allen’s first big gig after losing his arm (after a few warm up shows in Ireland) and the band played new material. It absolutely pissed it down only stopping when they’d finished. After almost a year of mixing the album ‘Hysteria’ finally arrived in August 1987 an astonishing four and a half years after ‘Pyromania’. The whole recording process of course is a story in itself but the more you read the more you wonder if the incredible length of time taken to make the record was at least partly due to the shitty/cutting edge (you choose) 8-bit technology that Lange was persisting with as much as his undoubted brilliance as a producer?
The ‘Hysteria’ story starts with an initial stall in sales in the U.S. but good sales in Europe before ‘Sugar’ and ‘Love Bites’ kickstart things Stateside and the (in my opinion awful) ‘In the Round’ stage show begins which the band loves but as a fan I hated getting to the front only to watch people’s back for half the set. If you wonder why more bands didn’t take up that amazing idea, that’s the reason. The tone of the book at this point becomes a little saturated with the legend of ‘Hysteria’ and anecdotes more about numbers than anything else. The tour ends on 27th October 1988 and I think like fans of any band who suddenly become hugely popular, and you are thrust anonymously into arena crowds when years before you’d been sweating in a decent sized venue down the front it’s a bittersweet experience. It was made so much more so being Steve Clark’s last show with the band. The band went home though this time to different parts of the world.
ADRENALIZE and THE LOSS OF STEVE CLARK
‘Adrenalize’ outsold ‘Hysteria’ in many parts of Europe when it came again an incredible four and a half years later. Sadly recorded too late for Steve Clark who died aged just 30 whilst on an enforced leave of absence due to his alcoholism. ‘Hysteria’ still included songs he’d had a hand in writing and without Lange as producer it Rocked more than Hysteria had been allowed to. It’s a sad moment in the bands history and you can feel the heartbreak from the band, though why the Vivian Campbell quote that he has met Steve only briefly and that “Steve had very melodic solos, they weren’t blisteringly technical, but they fitted the song perfectly.” is included I have no idea. That ‘they weren’t blisteringly technical’ just riles me, should they have been Vivian? What’s the point of that negative line?
Would the band break up like Zeppelin had when they had so much more to give after losing Bonham? Eliott gives the answer: “… Def Leppard was our livelihood.”
I know fans have their own favourites as far as albums go, and I personally would still pick ‘High ‘n’ Dry’ and ‘Pyromania’ above all else followed by the imperfectly produced, yet refreshingly raw debut. I’ve always wondered about the time it took for the ‘Adrenalize’ album to come out , more so than ‘Hysteria’- with Elliott claiming someone in the band was working on it 12 hours a day over those 4 and a half years it took to produce it. Really 12 hours a day for four and a half years, for 10 tracks? That’s not even three songs a year (or one almost every six months) that when finished the band didn’t play more than half of them live.
Was the stagnation because of that success of ‘Hysteria’ and wanting to replicate that? It’s not addressed here but to put it in perspective: Def Leppard’s first three records were released within just under three years of each other. “Hysteria’ and ‘Adrenalize’ took more than three times as long as those three albums. Too rich? Too successful? Too insecure?
Interestingly too, there’s a segment about potentially have John Sykes join the band to fill in Steve’s spot. The interesting part is that he’s discarded on the nod of Mike Shipley (Adrenalize producer and mixer on Hysteria) as Sykes is making all these suggestions whilst the band is away in Sheffield. I find it remarkable that the band cut him free on Shipley’s say so without even being curious at what Sykes suggestions were, even more so when Elliott is clearly backing Vivian Campbell who he knew. Makes you wonder what could have been but more interestingly why no one was interested enough to find out what the suggestions were, or if that was just Shipley covering his ass or not wanting the extra work!
The Freddie Mercury Tribute gig comes later in 1992 with some wonderful anecdotes especially by Elliott. Then there’s the again slow starting U.S. Tour. They play Adrenalize ‘In the round’ again, ironically, as Elliott bemoans that they weren’t breaking any new ground! (and Sav comments that he’s not sure why more bands weren’t playing that way!) Elloitt it seems didn’t fear Grunge as “people who got into it were people who didn’t like us in the first place” apparently, before he goes on to list ‘Michael Jackson, Simple Minds, INXS, Depeche Mode and Duran Duran’ as band Def Leppard fans might also like. It’s at once patronizing to all Rock fans and way off the mark. There are plenty of us out there who could certainly stomach a little Nirvana, Alice in Chains and teh like was more than teh bloated self importance of bands like Depeche Mode and Simple Minds…
There’s more embellishment when Elliott boasts that “‘Adrenalize’ was one of the Top selling albums of the 90’s.” Even in the U.S. the three sources I checked don’t have it in the Top 100 for that decade, but hey shall we also ignore that rather traditional Rock bands like Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Queen, Metallica, Meatloaf and Guns ‘n’ Roses far outsold it despite Grunge and dominated album sales that decade?
VAULT & SLANG
The ‘Retroactive’ compilation arrives in 1993 and ‘Vault’ in 1995 with barely a mention except for the wonderful marketing idea of three shows in three continents in the same day. There is then a huge bandwagon jump for ‘Slang’ the second album where songs were primarily composed by individuals. Strangely Elliott comments at this point that “…We have now reclaimed our place in the industry as a kind of Glam Version of Rolling Stones.” It’s a hilarious comment you feel must have been made deadly seriously at the time.
For ‘Slang’ Campbell notes that the band were listening to ‘Superunknown’ by Soundgarden and it was a big influence when just a few years before Elliott has been saying that people who got into Grunge didn’t like Def Leppard. It’s all so contradictory – at one moment forging their own way and evolving, at another chasing what’s popular at the time. Elliott is steadfast though and sees it as ‘ground-breaking’ and claims that some felt ‘Slang’ was the best thing they ever did. Campbell thought it was “Too much of a left turn.” The band played more in Asia and South America as numbers decline in major markets.
EUPHORIA
‘Euphoria’ takes just 3 years to complete and they aim at going back to the sound of ‘Hysteria’ it’s just 12 pages in the book – 7 of those just photos and ‘2002’s ‘X’ is dealt with just as swiftly featuring Allen as a songwriter for pretty much the first time in any real measure and outside song-writers. It’s the album least loved by the band live with almost nothing except ‘Now’ ever getting an airing. Elliott calls it their poppiest of albums and mentions Cheap Trick. Savage adds that ‘Backstreet Boys’ sound like Def Leppard without guitars adding that ‘Pour Some Sugar on me’ could have been a Backstreet Boys song. To make thigs even worse Campbell adds that he’s a big ‘Crowded House’ fan. It’s ironic in a way that the only decent band mentioned Cheap Trick are a Rock band and continue to produce wonderful albums and ‘X’ got nowhere near their sound. Conversely I can’t think of two bands I’d rather less listen to than the insipid, lukewarm cloying unoriginality of Crowded House, or the syrupy vacuous and cookie cutter warbling of Backstreet Boys.
EVOLVING IN THE NEW MILLENIUM
A second ‘Best of’ Collection of 34 songs arrives in 2004 with little from recent releases: two tracks from ‘X’ and ‘Slang’ and just one track from ‘Euphoria.’ It doesn’t get a U.S. release – instead a remarkably similar compilation ‘Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection’ (maybe cynically with just one additional track) is released a year later. A year later it’s ‘Yeah!’ the covers album where Collen makes it known that they didn’t want to do the obvious covers before naming ‘Waterloo Sunset’ by The Kinks…
You can tell Elliott’s mindset in 2005 when they change management to Q Prime and he adds “He (Howard Kaufman) didn’t really care whether these bands made new music ever again” Collen adds “…he would triple our income within a year“. It’s interesting that the last decade flies by with teh band wanting to be more Pop and move in different directions not giving the fans the Rock they are so obviously after and yet at the same time happy to go out on the road making money from the songs that they seem to want to step away from. It’s that age old dilemma for bands of a certain age and it’s always the oldest and most loyal fans that get the most short-changed…They tour successfully with Journey in the U.S.
SPARKLE LOUNGES and CMT
“Songs From the Sparkle Lounge’ and the collaboration with Tim McGraw arrives in 2008 as does the CMT show Crossroads with Taylor Swift and the real start of the ‘Package Tours’ that of course led to The Stadium Tour of today. The names of their touring partners in 2008 are very familiar of course – Poison, Heart, Joan Jett, Motley Crue, Journey, Cheap Trick. So if you thought ‘The Stadium Tour’ was original think again, it’s just a rebranding. Headlining the new multi-day Download in 2009 and 2011 was pretty cool though.
Now some of you I’m sure might like Taylor Swift and the collaboration, which of course was a play for the American market again. I personally can’t abide the likes of Swift and Sheeran and the sheer mediocrity that rules the airwaves today. At the time I saw it as a sheer business move but reading everyone in the band’s remarks it reads like the band has dismissed their Rock audience completely by this point and were embracing anything that was capable of alienating their oldest fans. I’m a pretty eclectic guy but I know that we will look back on popular music in the 2000’s and realise just how truly mind-numbingly derivative and mundane it became.
I must admit I was also rather bemused why such a great live act took till 2011 to release their first live (double) album ‘Mirror Ball and More’ (tagging on three new tracks for good marketing measure). When it came it was great but I’d love to see and hear more vintage shows that certainly do exist. In 2011 disagreements with Universal over money lead to a re-recording a few of the hits before re-recording all of ‘Hysteria’ in 2013 (which did sound pretty awful). In between albums, Downunder even though we didn’t get Def Leppard dates we did get to see Joe in ‘Kings of Chaos’ at Stone Music Festival in the Sydney Olympic stadium in 2012. Resolution with the label finally came in 2017 and Leppard went digital with the back catalogue a year later. Then came The Vegas residency playing ‘Viva Hysteria’ and supporting themselves playing a set of older material as well as Campbell’s cancer diagnosis. 2014 saw Def Leppard tour with Kiss for the first and so far only time, but only in the U.S.
SELF-TITLED
Next it was 2015 and the self-titled 11th album, seven years after their last studio venture. Phil Collen noted it as being “probably the most diverse thing we’ve done” as well as “the best thing we’ve done since ‘Hysteria’” For an album 7 years in the making from a fan’s perspective it was certainly diverse, but probably not the best since 1987’s ‘Hysteria’ interestingly like the last few records it’s the Savage compositions that stay truest to the earlier sound of the band.
In 2019 Def Leppard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio, that city known for its strong Rock and Roll history… sorry that city known for offering most public money to build the thing… I mean Cleveland, it’s a lovely place but I can only name The Raspberries and Filter who hail from there without the aid of a Google search! And as far as public money goes, isn’t it a business that makes up it’s own rules keeps its nominating committee secret and pretty much does as it pleases? Congrats to the Leps though, who were inducted the same year as Roxy Music, The Zombies and The Cure.
THE DIAMOND STAR STADIUM TOUR
The book closes with ‘Diamond Star Halos’ a record that the title of which just got me excited at the time because no matter how much Def Leppard changed over the years there was always a part of me hoping that they would recapture just a shard of the magic of those early years. Was this going to be Def Leppard going full T-Rex, full Glam!? Sadly the T-Rex lyric that gave the album its title didn’t really shine through into the music. The band hailed the cover art as harking back to those great albums of the 70’s but when it arrived it was black and white and there is no way on earth that 70’s Glam was anywhere near as colourless. Was it suggesting a photocopy or a facsimile? Was the colorlessness due to its conception during covid? It was an OK album but not one that sounded like 5 men had taken seven years to come up with.
The album of course pales into insignificance compared to the revenue generated by The Stadium Tour. Remember back in 2008 when Leppard played with Poison, Heart, Joan Jett, Motley Crue, Journey, Cheap Trick? Well in 2023 you an see them play with Motley Crue, Poison, Joan Jett and Classless Act with all bands except the latter basically doing the same Greatest Hits set they did last time round. My problem with Rock and Roll is that I’ve never stopped loving new music and whilst the big bands of yesteryear hit the nostalgia circuit on repeat it’s bands like the last on the bill ‘Classless Act’ that I listen to with the same love I had when I first heard Def Leppard.
If Rock is to survive its the young acts like Classless Act, Dirty Honey and the European bands like Eclipse, Crashdiet, Hardcore Superstar and Crazy Lixx that we need to be championing. Rock was never cool and the mainstream will never accept us except when the price is right. At east on the stadium tour Def Leppard play their instruments and sing unlike some others on that tour.
As Rock books go it’s great and beautifully curated. I love the gaps created by the quotes and the wonderful images and memorabilia that keep shing through. If this is the last word of arguably the last big U.K. Rock band to make it in the United States it’s a great epitaph, but I feel there’s still more to come. It would have made a wonderful documentary if anyone is listening…
AFTERWARD – WAS BARTON RIGHT?
So was Geoff Barton right when all those years ago when he asked if the ‘Leppard had changed its spots’ and sold out to America all the way back in 1980? To put it in context at the time Elliott’s response was to suggest Barton’s musings were unfounded: “It’s an urban myth that we buggered off for the Yankee dollar,” he sais at the time before adding that “Touring the States was the next logical step for us. Led Zeppelin did it. And Iron Maiden were doing it too, but the perception was that we’d sold out. The truth is, any of those other bands from that time would have bitten our heads off to take our place.” It’s an interesting comment that seems to actually agree with Barton to a greater degree.
If you want to look at the reality of the situation then the numbers tell the story better than any journalist and you don’t even have to dig too deep either. If anything poor Geoff was just a little too early with his predictions. In 1980 when he wrote the article it was the last year Def Leppard played more shows in the U.K. than the U.S. (and only six more at that). Just three years later in 1983 Def Leppard had played more U.S. dates than they ever have played in the U.K. to date.
According to setlist.fm Def Leppard as at the end of 2023 has played a total of 1535 shows in the U.S. and if you add to that the 152 Canadian shows that makes 1687 North American dates, give or take, to date. Conversely Def Leppard have played a total of 293 shows in the United Kingdom (251 of which were in England).
More tellingly 64 of those UK shows took place in the 1970’s and 122 of those shows were in the 1980’s. That means since 1990 (or in the last 34 years if you prefer) Def Leppard has played 107 shows in the UK (or an average of 3 shows a year) and they have played the U.S. 1,115 times in the same period.
By 1983 (40 years ago) they had already played 256 shows in the U.S. – that’s more than they have in their career to date in England.
- In the 1990’s Def Leppard played the U.S. 264 times and the U.K. 32 times.
- In the 2000’s Def Leppard played the U.S. 426 times and the U.K. 38 times.
- In the 2010’s Def Leppard played the U.S 378 times and the U.K. 31 times.
Now in no way am I knocking success – after all we all know where the money is. We also know from history that so many American bands were rarely seen in the U.K. in the 70’s and 80’s and just like those big U.S. names Def Leppard was always far more focused on the Stars and Stripes than the Union Jack. The figures certainly look like Geoff Barton, who I railed at back in the day, was right after all.
8 /10